Pit & Quarry, February 2012

EDITED BY BRIAN RICHESSON Report says MSHAs Small Mine Office to remain open T he National Stone Sand Gravel Association NSSGA reports that the Mine Safety Health Administration MSHA has decided to reverse its earlier effort to dismantle its Small Mine Office SMO Joy Wilson NSSGA president and CEO said We are very pleased that a bipartisan mix of congressional leaders who deal with MSHA policy and budget appropriations recognize the critical importance of the agencys robust compliance assistance to small aggregates facilities so that operators can optimally manage the safety and health of their employees Further Wilson continued given the Mine Acts requirement that the government should provide effective compliance assistance we see this move as imperative Wilson added that the NSSGA its members and other advocates have broadcast the merits of the SMOs programs Wilson indicated MSHAs decision is sure to please operators of small stone sand and gravel mines and notes it allows for SMO to retain its traditional form and independence from MSHAs inspectorate According to NSSGA the Small Mine Office has been directed to hire additional compliance officers to assist small mine operators in complying with standards and managing for safety and health In a direct response to a Pit Quarry inquiry an MSHA official said We never dismantled or planned to dismantle the Small Mine Office We have no control over what other organizations announce House of Representatives passes dust regulation legislation The U S House of Representatives passed the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act a bill to protect producers of resource based products including aggregates as well as farmers and ranchers from increased regulation of a naturally occurring substance The bipartisan bill authored by Reps Kristi Noem R S D Robert Hurt R Va Leonard Boswell D Iowa and Larry Kissel D N C aims to prevent the EPA from imposing more stringent federal dust standards addresses the threat of increased federal regulation of dust and exempts nuisance dust from EPA regulation if it is already regulated by state local or tribal law However it does not exempt particulate matter generated by industrial facilities or power plants Pete Lien president of Pete Lien Sons a producer in Rapid City S D testified in support of the bill before a hearing of the House Energy Power Subcommittee The National Stone Sand Gravel Association says that in the Senate Sen Mike Johanns R Neb is renewing his call to pass the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act a bill he introduced in September that is nearly identical to the one that passed in the House AGGREGATES FORECAST DCG Inc Aggregates Forecast 2010 12 Demographic trends Demographic changes have a large influence on the distribution of aggregates demand over time We all know population growth is concentrated in the Sun Belt but the story is much more interesting than that California and Florida are no longer rapid growth states California due to high living costs and anti business policies and Florida owing to natural disasters and high insurance costs The biggest changes are the higher growth rates in the Mountain West the Plains and the energy states While in the past the energy states were Texas Oklahoma and Louisiana they now include in Billions of Metric Tons 2010 2011 2012 Aggregates 199 193 183 Ch Yr Yr 30 52 Pennsylvania Ohio New York North Dakota South Dakota and Wyoming as fracking becomes popular for extracting gas from newly discovered fields In addition some states Wisconsin Indiana Virginia are putting their fiscal house in order to remain competitive while others Illinois Michigan New York California Rhode Island are not These new demographic trends mean that aggregate gains in the future will be less concentrated in the Sun Belt and include many formerly slow growing states Since the large Sun Belt states will be growing slowly and the smaller non Sun Belt states will be growing quickly overall aggregates demand will grow more slowly due to weighted averaging effects For the next year or so aggregates demand will be flat to down as the economy grows slowly and infrastructure spending declines David Chereb David Chereb has many years of forecasting construction materials He received his Ph D in economics from the University of Southern California He can be reached at dc@ davidcherebgroup com 6 PIT QUARRY February 2012 www pitandquarry com